Black Bear

A young bear was struck by a motorist Sunday morning after it ran onto Interstate-270 near Father Hurley in Montgomery County. After being discovered in nearby woods by police, the bear was put down because of the severity of its injuries, police said. Cpl. Frank Corn of the Montgomery County police Germantown barrack said several motorists called police to report seeing the bear along the highway Sunday morning. However, by the time police arrived it had been struck by a Jeep Cherokee traveling southbound and had limped into the woods.

When Towson welcomes Maine to Johnny Unitas Stadium on Saturday night for the Colonial Athletic Association opener for both sides, the matchup will pit two of the three teams in last year's race for the conference title. But both programs are shades of what they were in 2013. The Tigers (2-2), who advanced to the Football Championship Subdivision title game, absorbed a stunning 31-27 loss to Central Connecticut State in their season opener and recently won back-to-back games ito climb back to .500.

When Lisa Moore searched outside her house in Jacksonville on Thursday for her 4-year-old daughter, she instead found a 2-year-old black bear. "I looked for her, turned the corner… I see this bear on its hind legs and it was trying to eat bird seed from a bird feeder" hanging in the tree, Moore said. After about 10 seconds watching the bear in awe, she said, "it hit me, where is my daughter?" Luckily, she was inside and, together, mother and daughter watched the bear hanging around a swing set, occasionally making his way to the bird feeder.

Chris Gleason walked outside early Tuesday to spend some time on his deck before heading to work, but he said he stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of an unexpected visitor: a black bear mere feet away. "As soon as I processed what it was, I was gone," said the 51-year-old Columbia resident, who lives in a subdivision just east of U.S. 29. "He was just standing there, not really doing anything. I knew it was time to get back into the house as soon as I could. " Gleason ran to get a camera, but the bear was gone when he got back, he said.

I heard a crash in the trees along the Youghiogheny River in Garrett County last week. I was standing in the river, fishing with a buddy. It had been a pretty day, and now the sun was starting to disappear behind some fir trees, and I heard heavy thrashing coming from the woods. I doubted it was another human being; a human being would likely stay on the trail that runs along the Youghiogheny and not make all that racket. It wasn't a squirrel; I know the sound of a squirrel banging through branches and brush, and that wasn't a squirrel.

So, which is it? Are Marylanders overwhelmingly repulsed by the thought of hunters shooting black bears or do we think hunting is a legitimate way to keep the critter population under control? It depends, I guess, on who's doing the asking and who's doing the answering. Days ago, the Department of Natural Resources released a poll of 831 residents indicating that 65 percent approve of a bear season as a management tool. The approval rating rises to 78 percent of respondents who live in "Bear Country," Maryland's two westernmost counties, where most of the animals roam.

The largest forest game animal in Maryland is the black bear. There is no hunting season for this shy yet potentially dangerous resident of Western Maryland.But a limited season is being looked at carefully by the Department of Natural Resources, which hopes to present a draft management plan to the public during two meetings expected to be scheduled for the middle of January.Before one begins to schedule scouting trips to Garrett and Allegany counties, however, western region wildlife manager Tom Mathews said recently that there is no guarantee that a hunting season will be included in regulations for 1992-93.

PROPOSALS to authorize a hunting season for black bears in Maryland are misguided, ignoring less drastic, practical solutions. The problem is that a growing number of bears are coming in contact with human activity in Western Maryland. Whether raiding garbage cans or farm crops, feeding on livestock or wandering around back yards of homes, the black bear is a decided nuisance (and danger) to humans there. As it becomes more used to human presence, the normally shy animal becomes less wary of encounters.

State wildlife officials are being asked to consider a limited hunt in parts of Allegany and Garrett counties to control a black bear population that is increasingly damaging crops and livestock in the Maryland mountains.The proposal -- which would require General Assembly approval -- is one of three recommendations a citizens task force is expected to issue today to address nuisance bear problems in those counties. Public meetings on the recommendations are to be conducted next month in Accident, Timonium, Easton and Annapolis.

One of Maryland's latest environmental debates comes from neighborhoods where an increasing number of residents are looking out of their windows and seeing black bears staring back at them.While the return of the black bear is seen by some as a positive symbol of improving environmental quality, others are concerns about the growing bear population in Garrett and Allegany counties."I get many complaints from my constituents that they live in fear because of bears roaming around their yard," says Garrett County Commissioner Brenda Beutscher.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is considering eliminating the black bear hunt quota and instead opening the season for a pre-determined number of days. The change is intended to help hunters plan more effectively and would eliminate the need for them to call a hotline each night to determine the status of the hunt. Last October, for the first time since the hunt was revived in 2004 after a 51-year hiatus, hunters who spent parts of six days in Garrett and Allegany counties failed to meet the quota set by the DNR's Wildlife and Heritage Service.

Maryland's annual black bear hunt went into overtime Saturday, and some might look at the outcome as a moral victory for the hairy, soon-to-be hibernating creatures. For the first time since the hunt was revived in 2004 after a 51-year hiatus, hunters who spent part of the past six days in Garrett and Allegany counties failed to meet the quota set by the state Department of Natural Resources' Heritage and Wildlife Service. According to Harry Spiker, the state's bear biologist, 94 bears were killed as of Saturday night - one shy of a quota that had been raised from last year with hopes of taking between 95 and 130. A year ago, 92 bears were killed with the quota between 80 and 110. But Spiker considered the event a success, particularly for the fact that there was a "major increase" in the number of bears taken in Allegany County.

A young bear was struck by a motorist Sunday morning after it ran onto Interstate-270 near Father Hurley in Montgomery County. After being discovered in nearby woods by police, the bear was put down because of the severity of its injuries, police said. Cpl. Frank Corn of the Montgomery County police Germantown barrack said several motorists called police to report seeing the bear along the highway Sunday morning. However, by the time police arrived it had been struck by a Jeep Cherokee traveling southbound and had limped into the woods.

With an increase in the number of permits given out and a record number of bears killed during last month's five-day Maryland black bear hunt came another high mark - arrests made for illegal baiting and other violations. According to the Natural Resources Police, 22 hunters were arrested. While it represented more than five times the number of hunters arrested last year (four) and double the number from 2010, it is only 2.5 percent of the number of hunters who were either issued permits or had sub-permits.

Nearly seven decades separate the youngest and oldest hunters who killed black bears in this year's state-controlled hunt, which ended Friday night. A record 92 bears were killed in Allegany and Garrett counties during the five-day hunt, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. A quota of 80 to 110 bears had been set, an increase from last year's quota of 55 to 80, which corresponds with the growth of the bear population in Maryland. Sixty-eight bears were killed a year ago. Aurora Wilhelm, who won't turn 8 until next month, became the youngest hunter to take down a bear since the hunt was revived in 2004.

A young male black bear that had been spotted for more than a week in the Arbutus-Halethorpe area of Baltimore County was captured last night after Department of Natural Resources police shot it with a tranquilizer gun as it roamed in the backyard of a house in Arbutus. The 1 1/2 -year-old, 100-pound bear ran a short distance after being hit, then collapsed as the drug took effect in the 5200 block of Larlin Road, not far from the Beltway. The animal was not injured. After being examined, the bear was placed in a circular bear-capture cage, doused with water and transported by DNR vehicle to the more isolated wilds of Western Maryland, where it was to be released.

OAKLAND -- As a photography major at a Washington college, Coty Jones is used to taking tough shots. But yesterday, on the first day of Maryland's black bear season, Jones shouldered her rifle, steadied her nerves and brought down a 615-pound bear, breaking the three-year-old state record by 129 pounds. On its hind legs, the bear would have barely squeezed through a doorway, its ears grazing the ceiling. It took eight men two hours to drag it the length of five football fields. "He didn't look that big until he got close," said Jones, a Hoopers Island resident and junior at Corcoran College of Art and Design.

Kaitlin Zembower had gone deer hunting with her father Jerry countless times over the years near their Frostburg home, but the experience they shared during last year's annual Maryland black bear hunt was much different. Though Jerry Zembower had seen the same bear every day on his way to work in the week leading up to the hunt, he and his daughter didn't see any, let alone shoot one, during their hunt. But Kaitlin wouldn't trade those hours last October for any other time she had spent with her dad hunting.

When Lisa Moore searched outside her house in Jacksonville on Thursday for her 4-year-old daughter, she instead found a 2-year-old black bear. "I looked for her, turned the corner… I see this bear on its hind legs and it was trying to eat bird seed from a bird feeder" hanging in the tree, Moore said. After about 10 seconds watching the bear in awe, she said, "it hit me, where is my daughter?" Luckily, she was inside and, together, mother and daughter watched the bear hanging around a swing set, occasionally making his way to the bird feeder.